Hi Friends,
2 things to bring to the front of your brain this week: Amazon entering the AI hiring market with Connect Talent and a newly released candidate feedback report for 2026 from Canditech.
Amazon stepping directly into AI-led interviewing, assessments, and evaluation feels like an opening move. When one of the world’s largest cloud providers starts building native hiring infrastructure, it changes the pressure on the entire HR tech market.
Canditech’s latest candidate feedback report also reinforces where hiring is heading. The research found that 95% of candidates prefer assessments tied to real-world job scenarios, while 83% say simulations are the most engaging hiring format.
A few things from the report stood out:
95% of candidates prefer assessments connected to real job tasks
83% said simulations were the most engaging hiring format
Only 17% preferred more traditional evaluation methods over simulations
That’s a pretty strong indicator that candidates want hiring processes to feel closer to the actual work.
Here’s the report overview
Breaking News
UKG Cuts 950 Jobs in Latest Restructuring Round
UKG is cutting another 950 employees as part of its latest restructuring effort. This is the reality of PE-backed software companies. Eliminate overlap, tighten operations, improve margins. UKG reportedly sits around $3 billion in ARR with more than 80,000 customers globally. They are not struggling. This is what “lean and efficient” looks like in modern enterprise software.
Amazon Launches “Connect Talent”
Amazon officially entered the AI hiring market with Connect Talent. The platform uses AI-led voice interviews, competency assessments, and explainable scoring based on Amazon’s internal hiring science. The bigger story: resumes are becoming less valuable as AI-generated applications flood recruiting systems. Amazon is betting the future of hiring moves toward conversation and competency instead of keyword matching.
Acquisitions
LumApps Acquires Comeen
LumApps acquired workplace experience platform Comeen as companies continue investing in hybrid work infrastructure. This is not some blockbuster acquisition, but it tells you the office is far from dead. Companies still care deeply about workplace coordination, communication, room management, and employee experience inside physical environments. Vendors are quietly fighting to own the “future workplace” category.
Greenhouse Acquires Ezra AI Labs for “Voice-First” Interviewing
Greenhouse acquired Ezra AI Labs after reporting that applications per recruiter have increased 412% since 2023. AI-generated resumes are overwhelming recruiters with polished applications that all look the same. Greenhouse is responding by moving evaluation away from resumes and toward conversational AI interviewing. The industry is shifting from document review to communication analysis.
Research
Skills-Based Hiring Keeps Accelerating Despite Operational Challenges
Canditech’s research found that 95% of candidates prefer assessments tied to real-world job scenarios, while 83% say job simulations are the most engaging hiring format. As AI-generated resumes continue flooding recruiting systems, employers are shifting toward assessments and structured evaluations to validate actual skills over polished applications.
Funding
HrFlow.ai Raises €6 Million Pre-Series A
Paris-based HrFlow.ai raised €6 million as it positions itself around AI hiring infrastructure and orchestration. The interesting part is the messaging. Some announcements frame them as an AI agent company while others focus heavily on parsing and backend infrastructure. My guess is they are building the connective layer underneath modern recruiting systems, not just another flashy AI interface.
Rippling Hits $16.8B Valuation with New $450M Raise
Rippling raised another $450 million and now sits at a $16.8 billion valuation. The company continues expanding far beyond payroll into devices, identity, HR, finance, and IT operations. The market is consolidating around platforms that want to become the single operating system for the business.
Awardco Secures $165M to Make Employee Recognition “Smart”
Awardco raised $165 million to expand its AI-powered employee recognition platform. The idea is simple: use AI to determine when recognition should happen before disengagement becomes attrition. Companies are increasingly treating retention as a data and workflow problem instead of purely a management problem.
